Beyond Religious Freedom

In modern times, the interplay of religion and politics has posed a daunting and puzzling dilemma to political analysts worldwide. While religion is considered to be the main governing factor of violence in most of the cases, ironically, the solutions proposed for combatting religious persecution are also crafted and projected in religious guise. The book under review is a fascinating and sensitizing account of the dilemma created by the advocacy of religious freedom in new global politics in terms of patronizing some forms of religion while discriminating other forms of ‘belief, being, and belonging.’ Thus, it ‘explores the politics of singling out religion as a basis from which to make foreign policy, international public policy, and conduct human rights advocacy’ (p. 2).